NO PLACE TO GO: More than 1.6 million Americans do not have indoor plumbing

Indian reservations notorious for their lack of sinks, showers, baths and toilets

Two things make a house a home: a toilet and a telephone. With cheap, readily available cell phones, may take their calls mobile. But when it comes to washing your hair, or even finding a place to answer the call of nature . many Americans are not so lucky. It's been learned that more than a one-and-a-half million Americans are without indoor plumbing.

The proportion of U.S. homes lacking complete plumbing has dropped dramatically, falling to about one-third in 1950 and one-sixth in 1960.

Highlights

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The latest American Community Survey has found that nearly 630,000 occupied households lack complete plumbing facilities. In simple terms, they lack one or more of the following: a toilet, a tub or shower, or running water.

It's an ongoing reality for many. Sixty short years ago, a quarter of American homes had no flushing toilet.

During the 1940s, around a third of homes in the U.S. had no flushing toilet. In some States, up to 70 percent of people did not have a flushing toilet in their own home. In the bad old days, most people went to use an outside toilet or privy.

Around 80 percent of the homes in Mississippi were without a flushing toilet in 1940. By the 1990s, just four percent were without a public sewer, septic tank, or cesspool.

In 1990, only one percent of American homes our homes lacked complete plumbing facilities. Things were much different in 1940, when nearly half lacked complete plumbing. During the "Greatest Generation," in the dark days of World War II, about ten States had rates approaching or exceeding 70 percent.

The proportion of U.S. homes lacking complete plumbing has dropped dramatically, falling to about one-third in 1950 and one-sixth in 1960.

States with the lowest percentage of such homes in 1940 were higher than Alaska, which topped the 1990 list.

Counties containing Indian reservations have astonishingly high percentages of households without plumbing. Fourteen percent of households in Shannon County, South Dakota don't have full plumbing. In Apache County, Arizona, the rate is more than 17 percent.

Sparsely-populated census areas in Alaska also have very high percentages.

Counties along the Rio Grande in Texas have high rates of unplumbed households. There are also homes in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia too.

In 1990, although homes that were without plumbing numbered less than three percent across the entire United States, 12 percent of properties in Arkansas were without flushing toilets.